Abstract

ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITION OF THE FLOWERING AERIAL PARTS OF FRESH AND AIR-DRIED SCOLYMUS HISPANICUS L FROM JORDAN

*Areej M. Alghoul, Bayan Kh. Al-Qataisheh and Abeer R. Abdelhalim

ABSTRACT

Herb drying is a common preserving technique. However, it may affect the quality of herb, such as changes in the amount of essential oil in herbs as well as the possibility of the formation of new volatile compounds. Scolymus hispanicus is one of the most used wild vegetables in Jordan and has been considered as an important natural source of antioxidants. Essential oils of the fresh and air-dried flowering aerial parts of Scolymus hispanicus L were obtained by traditional hydrodistillation. The chemical constituents of essential oil were analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry technique (GC/MS). The analysis shows that the essential oil of the fresh sample of Scolymus hispanicus consisted of 47 chemical components, while the dried sample revealed the presence of only 32 components. Themajor classes in the oil of the fresh flowering aerial part were aliphatic compounds (56.49%), oxygenated sesquiterpenes (22.82%), and esters (6.41%) with n -pentacosane (40.80%) being the major constituent However, in the oil of the dried flowering aerial part the main classes were esters (67.12%), oxygenated diterpenes (11.70%), and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (2.04%) with decyl octyl phthalate (62.95%), being the main component. The present study was designed to investigate the essential oil composition of the flowering aerial parts of fresh and air-dried Scolymus hispanicus.

Keywords: Essential oils, GC/MS, hydrodistillation, Scolymus hispanicu volatile compounds.